Arabic saling ships

[Paul H]

A friend from the UAE sent me an interesting book about seafaring craft of the Emirates. It is not a technical discussion of the craft, rather a description of their uses for fishing, pearling and trade. I don't have it with me, and I think the title is Seafaring Vessels of the Emirates. I tried to find a link from google and amazon, but came up blank. I believe it was printed in the UAE, so I guess not available over here. The pictures were mostly taken in the 50's, which was both before the use of internal combustion engines had affecte the craft, and more importantly, before the massive influx of oil wealth totally changed the economy of the country.

It made me realize that craft from that part of the world doesn't receive much mention. The craft didn't have the fine fit and finish of classic western craft of the early 20th centrury, rather they looked as ones built hundreds, if not thousands of years ago.

[Paul Scheuer]

Search for "Dhow".

[George.]

Our beloved gaff rigs are nothing other than cut-off lateen rigs, borrowed from the Arabs by the Portuguese, Italians, and others.

[Hwyl]

There is a bok by Tim Severin called "The Sinbad Voyage" which should interest you.

[Venchka]

I spent most of a year in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Dhow races were rivaled only by camel races for local TV attention. The prize money was huge as well as the cost of these purpose built race boats. I also rode to/from work on the deck of a more modest motorized dhow. Fine boats for sure! My guess is that the timber came from India or points east of India.

[brian.cunningham]

I've liked them since I've seen Sinbad movies when I was a kid
http://www.jmr.nmm.ac.uk/uploads/image_thumbs_200/jpg/dhow-building.jpg
The Art of Dhow-building in Kuwait (http://www.jmr.nmm.ac.uk/site/request/setTemplate:singlecontent/contentTypeA/conJmrBookReview/contentId/32)

[brian.cunningham]

a webpage on them
THE HISTORY AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE DHOW (http://nabataea.net/ships.html)
http://nabataea.net/rigging.jpg

[ 12-03-2004, 07:10 PM: Message edited by: brian.cunningham ]

[Bob Smalser]

Omani Pirates

At the end of each year's Dubai-Muscat yacht race, the Sultan of Oman's finish line celebration includes a traditional Dhow race.

The years I did it he made it amusing by asking for three crews...one American, one British, and one Omani. Each crew had two weeks to repair, rig and sail the 35' "Barkas" out of the naval museum's dry storage yard. Problem #1...you can imagine how dried out those thick teak planks were from 11 mo, 2 weeks in the Gulf of Oman sun, eh? Minimum hardware in this traditional local construction…the planks are fastened with threaded lashings of palm tree fiber – coir. Flat keels for beaching upright with support poles lashed to the gunwales and round stones and rail meat for ballast.

Usually we could only get two of the boats functional in time to race, and two crews would combine. As the sail had to be lashed to the yard with traditional hemp, fids and mallets, one generally had to guess the wind the day before as sail changes took 3 hours...guesses that sometimes had disastrous results.

Between sinking a boat from a sprung plank in 5 fathoms when its coir lashings failed and recovering it the next day using the naval yard’s barge.... the resident Australian marine archaeologist separating his shoulder from a crashing yard during a dismasting...to having the fittest crewman dedicated to the one manual and traditionally-constructed pump...to caulking with coir, mallets and irons side by side with a seafaring Omani who's grandfather had been a real pirate...it was a rich experience.

The pirate's grandson...a greybeard naval warrant who crewed Oman's national Dhow on its motorless China voyage in his youth...was the crew captain and helmsman the year the American and Omani crews had to combine. The British boat, crewed not by residents familiar with that part of the world but by a young, visiting warship crew, had made a better sail choice the day before and was a boat length ahead...as our tacks crossed my Omani captain ordered that we ram the British boat, hailed them with his intentions and stated we would board, kill and eat them. This may have kindled a memory of nautical history in our British friends, because in the early 1900’s a British transport bound for India was shipwrecked on Masirah Island and all souls aboard were killed by the locals with some incidents of cannibalism, I’m told. A monument marks the site today…musta been a bad year for fishing. I knew my captain was joking...and we missed in our ramming attempt...

...but the British youngsters strangely kept their distance from us later at the firelight feast of baby goat, baby camel and saffron rice.

[George.]

Great story, Bob.


Originally posted by Bob Smalser:
As the sail had to be lashed to the yard with traditional hemp, fids and mallets, one generally had to guess the wind the day before as sail changes took 3 hours...guesses that sometimes had disastrous results.

One of the improvements the Portuguese came up with for the lateen rig is putting the yard inside the shrouds, rather than outside. That way you could tack it without lowering the whole thing and man-handling it to the other side. A good feature if you are taking a caravel on an exploration voyage where a quick tack followed by an efficient beat to windward can save you from wrecking on a just-discovered sandbar to leeward.

[Andrew S/Y Rocquette]

My wife and I saw dhows being built on the northern coast of Zanzibar on our honeymoon in July. They're built completely by eye, and are about 25-35 feet long. I have a whole bunch of photos if anyone wants to see, but don't think I can post them - email me if you're interested! The designs haven't changed much in several hundred years. The hulls are rough-planked and iron-fastened, then faired by eye with an adze. Seams are cauled with cotton soaked in coconut oil. They need recaulking yearly and refastening every 4-5 years.

[mower]

When I was a kid growing up in Kenya, Zanzibar and Lamu were both still big Dhow building centres. I'm glad to hear they are still building Dhows in Zanzibar, I hope dhow building is still taking place in Lamu as well. It was in one of these East African Dhows that I got my first taste of sailing many years ago. I was smitten! It is amazing to me that such a design has remained nearly unchanged for hundreds of years. When I built my first boat a few years ago, I named her Malindi, the name of a town on the East African Coast between Mombasa and Lamu. When I sail her, it harkens me back to the time I first became interested in sailing and sail boats.

[Bob Smalser]

As Oman colonized Zanzibar for several centuries, when traveling around that region it's easy to see the threads of traditional building designs and techniques.

The Gulfies still build them in traditional yards all up and down the coast.

The major yard in Kuwait along with the bulk of the fishing fleet was out my back door and we made friends over there among the Kuwaiti, Indian and Iranian shipwrights, who all still used traditional tools...including bow drills.

As next-door neighbors important to our security, I used to bring them into the depot and give them first crack at the DRMO (surplus and scrap yard) gratis. Still have the lovely Dhow model they gave me when it was time to leave few years later.

Other than modern engines, the hull design remains unchanged from the days of sail. Massively heavy. Teak carvel planks on teak and mango frames from India caulked with coir from coconut husks, or oakum and cotton, payed with a shark oil and whiting slurry also used in a thinner mix to coat the hull below the waterline where it is not coppered. These boats have dead flat timber keels and carry stabilizing poles aboard to ground out at low tide where the hull needs regular maintenance in those warm, worm-infested waters.

They had a lovely 26-foot hull that was commissioned as a yacht but never rigged or delivered as GWI intervened. I wanted to bring it back home and coulda got it for a song but then me and the engineers did a good measurement and weight estimate...those 2"-thick teak planks and 6" X 6" teak frames were a bit heavy for my household goods allowance. I'da had to have done a container shipment...5 grand to New York then another couple grand to haul it west...just too spendy.

Oh well....they were an absolute bear to sail anyway. Pulling down and inverting that heavy yard and massive wet cotton sail at every tack was a challenge.

[Paul H]

Wow,

Thanks for all the feedback. The text of the book doesn't describe the construction of the hulls at all, so I'm glad to find out how and what they were built from. I was also curious about the white bottom coating.

The closest I've been to that part of the world was Atyrau Kazakhstan, and the craft we saw on the river were mostly old rusted Russian craft.

[Meerkat]

Lot of trade still carried in dhows along the east African coast and across to Pakistan and India and back.